[shelbysaleen]

If you have been in the hobby long enough you probably have a white whale. The term white whale might not even really be appropriate in the matter its normally used.

In moby dick captain ahab was searching for the white whale moby dick but he did at least see moby dick.

The correct term for what I am speaking might be better called big foot or loch ness. You have heard about it, You have read about it., but no one has really ever seen it or have they.

These are the cards that might not hold any real monetary value but you just cant seem to find them. The card that a friend of a friend knows a dealer whos third cousin married another dealer who had the card once but alas no more.

Its a card that sits on your want list year after year after year. you do your daily searches and still nothing ever. The price guide says its there but if its there and its common why can you not find just one.

One of my Big foots became a white whale this past week and I finally harpooned it. This particular one is a chuck bown winners choice autograph /500. Back when this card came out 500 was considered a rare number. I mean do your rememeber there are only 500 of them. Now 500 might as well be 10,000.

I have had this on my want list since I started the quest to try and capture one of every dirver crew chief, media, owner mechanic and rising star autograph created for the NASCAR series.

The collection in itself started as an accident. I had a danny glad vip autograph. Who is he, just a mechanic in someones shop. He had an autograph back in the day when the card companies put EVERYONE in their sets.

I decided maybe someone should try and collect all of these autographs no on else really cared about. I sent out notice that I would be that person. Within a week I was getting not only those autographs but some star autographs also. In the beginning it was easy I needed everything. as the months grew on my list got smaller and smaller.

Recently it came down to just two names, Chuck Bown and Harry rainier. The set Chuck was listed in I already had a Robert Pressley one and know where the kenny wallace is. I asked everyone I could think of and no on had ever heard of the chuck bown card.

Welll after at least 3 years of daily ebay notices one finally showed up. There it was too good to be true. Now to wait out the auction. The starting bid was higher than the card was worth but it also had a BIN. I killed the BIN and sweated for a week. Well I was the only bidder, after all how many chuck bown collectors are there.

The card finally arrived and now sits in my collection with the other 394/395 autographs. I did some more research and have determined that the harry ranier probably does not really exist. I will put it on the list still but I really do not believe its a white whale big foot or loch ness. I think its a unicorn. A card that simply does not exist.

I need a kyle larson autograph and when it comes in i will take a picture of all 395 together and enjoy for the moment i have them all. Of course when redline comes out there will be new ones to chase but they are much easier right.




SINCE this card arrived. A friend of mine also knocked off one of his loch ness monsters. he has been looking for the sears craftsman autograph of ricky craven for years and one finally showed up. It was not even in an auction. It was in a picture with another card someone was selling. He decided to take a chancce and sure enough the rick craven was availalbe. He was super excited. Like Jim Valvano said NEver give up